Art Blocks is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

This evening is an episode premiere, installation, and fundraiser for the poetic-film series, Sweetness of Wild and the artist collective, Free Black Dirt.

Sweetness of Wild is an episodic-poetic-film-experience that is a love letter to Black life, queerness, creativity, biking, laughter, and the sweetness and wildness of Minneapolis. This project features a beautiful and talented cast that delve into the nuances of Blackness living on Dakota land, in the sensuous divinity of Prince, and in the cosmic unfurling of love.

Written and Directed by Junauda PetrusCinematography by Mychal Fisher Produced by Erin Sharkey and Junauda Petrus of Free Black Dirt.

This magical evening will include:

World premiere of Sweetness of Wild's series of episodes

Yummy Caribbean food by Ingredients Caribbean Cuisine

Sweetness bike ride with poetry and musical stop inspired by Sweetness of Wild

Poetry box installation to make a collective Sweetness of Wild poem with community

Performances from Sweetness of Wild cast

And more!

About Junauda Petrus:Junauda Petrus is a creative activist, writer, playwright, and multi-dimensional performance artist who is Minneapolis-born, West-Indian descended, and African-sourced. Her work centers around Black wildness, Afro-futurism, ancestral healing, sweetness, spectacle and shimmer. She has received a Givens Foundation fellowship, Jerome Travel and Study grant, Many Voices Mentorship with the Playwright’s Center, Naked Stages Residency at the Pillsbury House and a 2016 Jerome Film grant to write and direct an experimental and poetic web series about Black teens coming of age in Minneapolis, Sweetness of Wild, with filmmaker Mychal Fisher. Junauda is the co-founder with Erin Sharkey of Free Black Dirt, an experimental arts production company.

About Erin Sharkey:Erin Sharkey is a poet, essayist, educator and graphic designer based in Minneapolis. She is the co-founder of an artist collective called Free Black Dirt and serves as the co-host for Black Market Reads, a weekly podcast about literature and black cultural production. Erin was a 2015 Givens Writing Fellow and is currently a Givens Foundation cultural producer-in-residence and Coffee House Press in the Stacks artist-in-residence at the Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature at the University of MN, and also is a consultant with Umbra: Search African American History.

About Free Black Dirt:Free Black Dirt is an artistic partnership formed by Minneapolis based collaborators Junauda Petrus and Erin Sharkey. Committed to creating original theatre, performance and film, hosting innovative events, organizing local artists, and promoting and supporting the emerging artists’ community in the Twin Cities, Free Black Dirt seeks to spark and engage in critical conversations that bridge the cultural and the magical.